FACE Lab technology viewed by community

Students, faculty, and staff on April 28 attended the open house for Emerson’s new Facial Affective Communicative Expression (FACE) Lab, which is dedicated to autism research and overseen by Assistant Professor Ruth Grossman of the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department. (Photos by Dan O’Brien)

Overseen by Assistant Professor Ruth Grossman of the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, the FACE Lab has state-of-the-art equipment that tracks eye gaze and facial movements with astounding precision. The equipment will be used primarily on adolescents on the autism spectrum during research studies.

Among the technology are six infrared motion-capture cameras that measure a subject’s facial movements at 515 frames per second. An infrared eye-tracker takes up to 500 snapshots per second of a person’s eye movement.

For the purposes of a photo demonstration, a 12-year-old girl (who is not a patient) is outfitted with reflective markers that help autism researchers in Emerson's new FACE lab examine facial expressions. (Photo by Kelsey Davis '14)